The "witching hour/s"

Image from here

Our Little Miss 4 had the "witching hours", she seemed to scream from about 5pm to 10pm - at least it seemed that long. At the time we thought it would never end - thankfully it did.

It seems that this week Little Mr 0 has developed his own "witching hours". I am not sure of the exact time as I am normally getting things organised for Little Miss 4's bath and dinner - isn't that always the way!

But it tends to depend on when he has a bottle in the late afternoon, early evening that dictates when the "witching" begins. It usually lasts a session, from one feed to the next. This is commonly on Hubby's watch too - sorry buddy.

These are the times when your little angel seems to be completely inconsolable. Why? There are so many stories of these "witching hours". Are they overtired at the end of the day? Are they hungrier?  Is there something really wrong that a sane adult person (insert Hubby and myself) can't figure out?

Our coping strategy is to basically pat him in the cot until he is settled, then leave the room (or lie on the fold-out bed in his room, depending on how tired the grown-up is), then repeat if he screams again. After about 30-45 minutes of this tango, we pick him up and try to get him to sleep by rocking, swaying, etc. If this too doesn't work, we put him in the bouncer and bounce him until his next feed.

At least this is the team tactic at the moment....today is after all a new day - and what worked yesterday may not work today.

I should digress quickly into the story from last night though....

I actually had a go at settling him during this time and settled him at about 8.20pm (he feed at 6.30pm) - GO ME! Then fell asleep myself on the fold-out bed I have set up in his room for those unsettled times when you can't be arsed to stumble back to your own bed only to get up five minutes later.

I woke up at 10pm and the cot was empty and his bedroom door wide open! HOLY SHIT, I thought, I have slept through the kidnapping of my five week old son! I jumped up and ran out the door, to be meet in the lounge room by Hubby who said, "I just can't wake up him for his next feed". (Another team tactic at the moment is feeding him during the day every 3-3.5 hours, with his last feed being 9.30-10pm, even if we have to wake him up.) So he drank about 70ml of milk and was back in bed quick smartly, as were Hubby and I.

Have you experienced the "witching hour/s"?